Philosophy by the Way

Random quote The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man . Thomas Robert Mal...

Rubin Vase If you have read my last blog, you may have noticed that I defend there a view about the relationship between mind and body that ...

Random quote Things which have most hold on us, as the concealment of our few possessions, are often a mere nothing. It is a nothing which ...

Sometimes things pop up in my mind and I feel an urge to write about it. For example, I have many books around here, but what actually is a ...

Random quote He who seeks to be eminent amongst able men has a great task, but that is always good for the public; whereas he who plots to ...

Louis XIV, alias the Sun King: King of France 1643-1715 In my blog about Machiavelli two weeks ago we have seen that basically anything is ...

Random quote In wartime, truth is whatever hurts the other side most . Adam Shatz, author (1972-)

Since I had no time to write a blog this week, instead I publish this fable by Jean de La Fontaine. I leave the interpretation to you. To my...

When distances still were distances It is the function of a letter that it preserves the feelings of sympathy that people that are far away...

In view of the present world situation, it may be a good idea to pay attention to Machiavelli’s famous book The Prince . Niccolò Machiavelli...

Random quote It is the nature of extreme self-lovers that they will set a house on fire if only to cook their eggs . Francis Bacon (1561-16...

To the trains Travelling is of all time. Only the means to travel have changed, and even these haven’t changed as much as we might think. Tr...

Random quote In taking revenge, a man is merely even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is his superior; for it is a prince’s part t...

Some time after Montaigne, also Francis Bacon (1561-1626) has written a book with essays. Some say that he has been inspired to do so by Mon...

Random quote A lot of people are gullible, who in their approval are not guided by the argument itself, but by the person who speaks, no ma...

I think that all of you know about them, but nevertheless again and again we fall into the trap: cultural misunderstandings. I got the idea ...

Random quote Dissimulation is only a faint kind of policy or wisdom; for one needs a strong wit and a strong heart to know when to tell the...

Constructed from real photos; no AI. The end of the year is always a time that we look back on what we did and on what happened around us, a...

Random quote I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war. Psalm 120:7

 

People like narratives, but people also like heroes, straight lines, unidimensional developments, events that happen for a reason and destin...

Random quote We know that sometimes in war fortune is more impartial than the disparities in forces would suggest. Surrendering would insta...

Spinoza enlightens the world (image constructed from real photos; no AI) Recently, I attended a lecture on Spinoza, and at the end someone a...

Random quote There is never doubt in the soul because of what is doubted ... Doubt will just exist because of a second idea, which, however...

Spinoza's Opera Posthuma (Posthumous Works) with the Ethica ,  published in 1677 by his friends after his death.  As regular readers of...

Stone bricked in the wall of the Spinoza House in Rijnsburg Ah, if all men were wise And wanted good! The earth would be a paradise. Now sh...

In his essay “ Of vain subtleties ” ( Essays I, 54) Montaigne writes that “there are a sort of little knacks and frivolous subtleties from ...